Halo 3 beta date confirmed for May 16

What are you still reading for? What more could you possibly want to know? Halo 3. Beta. May 16. Joy. Ok, if you insist, we can tell you a little bit more, straight from Microsoft's official announcement this morning. It's going to be begin at 5 a.m. PDT on May 16 and run for three weeks, until June 6. You'll need to have done the whole "Rule of Three" thing or bought your specially-marked copy of Crackdown and be an Xbox Live Gold member to get all up in heaven. Bungie's reminding fans that it's still a beta and there will be some rough edges, but that it will look "somewhat close" to the final game.

In the beta, you'll get your grubby mitts on three maps, "Snowbound," "High Ground" and "Valhalla," which "represent a mixture of large- and medium-scale combat environments." You'll also get new vehicles, like the Mongoose all-terrain vehicle, and weapons like the new and improved Assault Rifle, Brute Spiker, Spartan Laser and the new Spike Grenades. A lot of the new content is available in a new Halo 3 feature on Xbox Live Marketplace and at Bungie's site called "Quisnam Protero Damno!". So, what are waiting for? Go watch the doc, go buy Crackdown and find a crossword puzzle that'll take you a month to finish.